I arrived at Amman’s (Queen Alia’s airport) at 8:00 PM. George & Karim were waiting there with a sign carrying, not my name, but rather “Ruby on Rails” – all in red
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As they haven’t seen me in person, they figured out that a RoR sign will get them a real smile or a nice wave and it sure did. Nice plan G&K.
On our 30 minutes drive from the airport, we discussed a lot of topics regarding Jordan, the ICT industry, our journeys, the economy. I had a good time. From what we discussed; Jordan is a melting pot with lots of people coming from all around. Palestine, Iraq, the Gulf, Egypt, and others. Jordan has no real natural resources, and hence, the economy is based on services, and seemingly few industries. According to G&K and from what I saw, a good deal of money is being invested in the real estate business, with construction sites all over Amman (with some mega projects). I later also learnt from Ahmed that it is one of the fastest growing cities in the world.
I checked into the Radisson SAS hotel (very nice with cosy rooms, courtesy of toot) – placed my bags – and headed with G&K for a nice dinner. G&K were so kind to tour-guide me, but I was having a traffic information overload – I thought I needed a map, but guess it wouldn’t have helped
!. We arrived at Faroujna, ordered a wonderful barbeque dinner with lots of apetizers and salads (Tabboula, Fattoush, Thomeyya) and digged in.
We held off the talk in business plans, but we warmed up with a wide array of discussions; itoot, the team, the web, Basecamp, Java, languages, Olivoice, AJAX, education, culture, business, Bibliotheca Alexandria, you name it.
Today felt more of a drum roll, with all the anticipation and enthusiasm. Tomorrow we’ll have our first meeting at SYNTAX digital where I’ll meet (Almost) all the members. I hope tomorrow would be a good day. UPDATE: It sure was.
It was a pleasure to have you in Amman. We really enjoyed all the talking and enlightment you provided us. I only wish your trip was longer to take you around Jordan and not just Amman. You should repeat it.